Please do not discuss the problems themselves with other people or look them up in reference sources. You may look up or ask other people about phonetic symbols and the meanings of terms used in the questions.

(1) Plains Cree Phonology

The following data from Plains Cree, an Algonquian language spoken in much of Western Canada, is transcribed phonetically. Determine the relationship between the voiced and voiceless stops and affricates. Are the members of each pair (at each point of articulation, e.g. [p] and [b]) allophones of the same phoneme or distinct phonemes? If the former, state the factors that determine the choice of allophone. If the latter, explain the basis for your decision that they are separate phonemes.

(2) Catalan Phonology

The following are phonetically transcribed masculine/feminine gender pairs in Catalan, a Romance language spoken in eastern Spain, southeastern France, the Principality of Andorra, and the city of Alguer in Sardinia. Describe the alternations in the stem-final consonant between the masculine forms and the feminine forms. State what you think the underlying forms of the stems are, along with the rules necessary to describe the surface forms. For each rule, state whether it is allophonic or morphophonemic and justify your answer.

(3) Proto-Romance to Spanish Mid-Vowels

The following data show what happened to the Latin mid vowels (/e/, /e:/, /o/, /o:/) as Proto-Romance evolved into Old Spanish. Describe what changes occurred in these vowels.

(4) Proto-Slavic to Bulgarian

The following data exemplify three sound changes that happened on the way from Proto-Slavic to Bulgarian. (The Proto-Slavic forms are reconstructed, but quite close to Old Church Slavonic.) Describe the three sound changes and, to the extent that you can determine it, the order in which they must have occurred. The curved diacritic over some of the vowels marks them as extra-short.